Computers and gaming systems provide a myriad of entertainment functions including gaming and interpersonal communication. Modern computer games often provide sophisticated multimedia environments involving 3-D graphics and sound to gamers and may allow multiplayer interaction over a network such as the Internet. Gaming enthusiasts typically play computer games on a platform, which may be, for example, a personal computers or dedicated gaming consoles such a the Xbox Video Game Console manufactured by Microsoft Corporation.
As many games allow for or are embellished in a multiplayer environment, it is common for many gamers to establish relationships with other gamers who may share similar interests or preferences. Gamers may request to join various games that are being played by other gamers. Typically this involves sending a request or invitation to a player or players in a game that the gamer desires to join and waiting for an acceptance.
Many games utilize discrete content elements or resources that may be sold separately from the original game title. For example, in a racetrack game, the original game title may include resources to allow a player to race on the 24 Hours Of Lemans circuit in France, the Daytona International Speedway in the United States, The Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the United States, the Fuji Speedway in Japan, the EuroSpeedway in Germany but not the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Australia.
In a multiplayer environment, one or more players may send an invitation to a player to join the racing game. The inviting players may already have purchased the content for the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit while the invitee may in fact not have this content. Upon being presented with an invitation and attempting to join an ongoing race on the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, the invitee would typically be confronted with some type of error notification that he or she did not have the requisite content and resources. The invitee would then be required to back out of the commenced multiplayer session, manually locate the desired content, purchase the content, install the content, relocate the inviting players, prepare his own request to join their game and then join the game that may already be well underway.
The combination of such a complex series of steps to accomplish this task may be highly frustrating and may lead to many players simply abandoning a session to which they have been invited without purchasing the required resources. For the content vendor this may lead to lower sales of content than desired due to the frustration factor.
Based upon the foregoing, there is a clear need a method and system to allow multimedia participants a direct bid to purchase and install required resources contemporaneously with the detection of an event that the content is not available. Such direct to bid system should seamlessly integrate with an already ongoing game session and should be made available to a player without requiring the player to back out of a session that is already underway, thereby allowing nearly continuous game session play without interruption. In addition, such a direct to bid system and method show allow a player to remain in contact and communication with other players previously in contact with during the purchase of the content, throughout installation and continuing through reestablishment of a gaming session with the other players.